We talk about comics because we love comics.

Storm

Since the movies have tried to do a version of the Dark Phoenix Saga twice (X-Men 3 and Dark Phoenix) and have failed both times, Jon and I have decided to talk about the original comic series the story is based upon.

The original Dark Phoenix Saga is officially considered to be issues #129 – 138 (Jan – Oct 1980) of Uncanny X-Men. The creators of this story are:

Writer: Chris Claremont

Artist: John Byrne

Inker: Terry Austin

The unofficial start of Jean Grey’s transition into Phoenix.

This story originally starts as a subplot with Jean Grey in issue #101 (Oct 1976) when Marvel Girl rescues some astronauts. In saving the lives of these people, Jean Grey unwittingly allows a cosmic entity called the Phoenix Force to enter her body. Over the next few years, the X-Men (specifically Scott Summers and Charles Xavier) will notice changes in Jean Grey’s behavior.

It won’t be until issues #129 – 132 when Jean drastically starts to behave differently and is seduced by Jason Wyngarde (Mastermind) of the Hellfire Club. Jon and I go over the history on how Chris Claremont and John Byrne were inspired by the show The Avengers for the concept of The Hellfire Club and the characters.

But did you know that these characters where based on real life actors? It’s true. Here are John Byrne’s inspiration…

Peter Wyngarde is Jason Wyngarde

Robert Shaw is Sebastian Shaw

Orson Welles is Harry Leland

Donald Sutherland is Donald Pierce

We explain the connection of these actors to their comic counter parts and how Byrne came up with their comic character names.

We go over some history and some of the story on why this is one of the greatest comic stories ever told. This is only part 1 of the conversation. We will continue this next week with the conclusion of the Dark Phoenix Saga and why TV and movies always get the adaptation wrong.

I love doing comic reviews and I especially love it when it’s a comic that I have heard about but never had the opportunity to read until now. This is one of those podcasts.

X-men God Loves, Man Kills is the 5th comic in the Marvel Graphic Novel series that came out in 1982. The original is hard to find but, thanks to reprints – you can get a cheap version of it today and, depending on which version you get, you’ll get bonus art and interviews with the creators.

On the left is the original copy of the comic that came out in 1982 and on the right is the current reprint that I purchased. The story was written by long time X-men scribe, Chris Claremont with art by Brent Anderson.

What also makes this a unique podcast – Jon actually read this comic originally when it came out. HE ACTUALLY READ A COMIC THAT I HAD NOT READ! This is a rare feat.

In the podcast we talk about what makes the Marvel Graphic Novel series so special and what was happening in the world during 1982 that actually influenced the comic. There is some reminiscing and shouting – you know, our usual comic talk.

Then we get into talking about the comic. We are introduced to Reverend William Stryker. He is a televangelist that loves God but is not found of mutants.

Stryker apostatizing humanity over mutants

Stryker, in fact, hates mutants with all his might…

I like how Nightcrawler is like “What did I do?”

As you can see in 2 panels that Reverend William Stryker is a very bad, no-good, terrible person and you will find out just what lengths he will go to to eliminate mutants from the face of the earth. If Stryker seems familiar to you, that is because the story from this comic was used in the movie X-men 2 AKA X2. William Stryker is the name of the main villain in the movie.

We talk about the story, its message and our thoughts on Stryker and his army called The Purifiers. We do spoil the story but if you saw X2, you already know how the story goes.

There is a cloud of Terrigen mist that is sweeping the Earth changing humans into…INHUMANS! More with each passing day. The mist is also killing all the mutants that come in contact with it!? Soon there will be no mutants left and only Inhumans. This could be the…(dramatic drum roll)…Death of X.

Are you excited? That is the starting premise in the 4 issue limited series from the House of Ideas, Marvel. I mean, that is an awesome start, right?!

Then you also get awesome variant covers. Some are even reproductions of classic covers like these:

Who needs story when these covers are with the purchase price alone, amirite! What? You want to know about the actual story? Really? These covers aren’t selling you? Okay. I will tell you about the story but just remember: Be careful of what you ask for because you might just get it. If you listen to the podcast, you will hear all the details of Death of X.Fair warning: Spoiler Alert. We cover it all.

Twitter Feed

Here at Comics Misremembered Podcast, we like to uncover hidden comics, movies, shows, etc. that you may not have heard about but are definitely worth your time. This week, we are talking about the super hero movie called Super. It was an independent movie that was written and directed by James Gunn (Guardians of the … Continue reading CM Podcast 225 – Super […]

Time Warner has a cool app called DC Universe that carries all the DC Heroes animated shows like Batman TAS, Superman TAS, Justice League Unlimited, and more. It also has new and exclusive live action hero shows like Titans, Doom Patrol and Swamp Thing. Jon and I recently subscribed to the DC Universe app to … Continue reading CM Podcast 224 – Swamp Thing Sh […]

We like to do new comics reviews every once in a while because there are always new series coming out that need attention. We like to let our listeners know about new writers and artists out there that are putting out some high quality comics! This week we are reviewing 4 new comics series that … Continue reading CM Podcast 223 – New Comics Review

Back in 1990, DC editors allowed Howard Chaykin and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez to use some of their beloved 1950 and 1960s Sci-Fi characters to be used in a very mature and violent miniseries. Twilight is quite an oddity. DC only has a few comics that were released dealing with mature themes up to this point … Continue reading CM Podcast 222 – Twilight

Jon and I normally will go to the Boston Comic Con (now called the Fan Expo Boston) and that is being held this weekend (8/16 – 8/18) but we will not be attending this year. :0 The reason we are not going is nothing that Fan Expo Boston did; they have always put together a … Continue reading CM Podcast 221 – TerrifiCon 2019

The X-Men soft rebooted again last week (is this like the 4th one so far? I lost count) but I ain’t even mad at you, Marvel for doing it. I was really enjoying the last incarnation of the Uncanny X-Men that started up last year and then I heard that they were going to stop … Continue reading CM Podcast 220 – House Of X and Power Of X

At this time each year, there is the San Diego Comic Con – one of the oldest, largest comic cons. At this comic con, writers and artists get together to celebrate their peers with the Eisner Awards. We like to cover the nominees to find out about stories that we may have missed during the … Continue reading CM Podcast 219 – 2019 Eisner Awards Nominees and Wi […]

Last week, we reviewed the 1st story arc to Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s comic: The Boys. This week we are reviewing the Amazon Prime version of the TV Show that launched on 7/26/19. The first season is 8 episodes long and we are talking about the first 3 episodes because that is all that … Continue reading CM Podcast 218 – The Boys (TV Show 2019) […]

Hello again and welcome back to Comics Misremembered. In this week’s podcast, we focus on The Boys. This comics was created by writer Garth Ennis and artist Darick Robertson. It originally came out in 2006 under the Wildstorm Imprint – this was Jim Lee’s imprint that was published through DC. The Boys put out 6 … Continue reading CM Podcast 217 – The Boys (C […]

Marvel Cinematic Universe’s 2nd Spider-Man movie came out July 2nd 2019 and it is titled: Spider-Man: Far From Home We went and saw it last Sunday. I was very excited for this movie because the previews had Jake Gyllenhaal playing Mysterio, a long time villain in the Spider-Man comics. This is the first time he … Continue reading CM Podcast 216 – Spider-Man: […]